How Teeth Remineralize 101

How Teeth Remineralize 101

Let’s look at how are teeth are designed so you can fully understand the process of tooth cavity healing (remineralization) and tooth cavity formation (demineralization). Dentin is the hard, bone-like middle layer of teeth. Enamel is the hard white surface covering your teeth. The root of the tooth is embedded in the jaw. The tooth pulp is in the middle of the tooth. The pulp contains blood vessels, nerves, and cellular elements including tooth building cells. Each tooth has a blood supply and a nerve that travels through the center of the tooth roots into the jaw bone via the mandibular nerve. The mandibular nerve is a branch of the largest cranial nerve in our body, the trigeminal nerve. This nerve connection is what makes toothaches so painful and debilitating. The periodontal ligament lines the root of the tooth. It connects the tooth to the jaw through millions of taut fibers running in different directions. These fibers absorb the shock of chewing, and hold the tooth firmly in place. The cells in the periodontal ligament can degenerate and regenerate. A worn out periodontal ligament is a primary cause of tooth loss.

Anatomy of a Tooth

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Each tooth contains about three miles of microscopic tubes called dentinal tubules. Dentinal tubules are 1.3 – 4.5 microns in size. This is close to one thousandth the size of a pinhead. Dentinal tubules are filled with a fluid that is estimated to be similar to the cerebral spinal fluid in the spinal cord and brain. The tooth enamel contains about two percent of this fluid. In addition to the tooth fluid, the tubules can contain parts of tooth growing cells, nerves and connective tissue.

Dentin and enamel are fed from tooth building cells called odontoblasts which transport or diffuse certain nutrients through the dental lymph. Odontoblasts contain microscopic structures that act as pumps. In effect, a healthy tooth cleans itself out. Microscopic droplets of nutrient-rich solution from our blood are pumped through the tiny tubules. In a healthy tooth, the fluid flow from within the pulp moves outward in a pressurized system that protects our teeth from corrosive substances in our mouths.

Dentist Ralph Steinman discovered that our teeth’s ability to remineralize is based upon the regulating action of the largest salivary glands, the parotid glands. Located near the inside of our jaw bone, the parotid glands regulate the activity of the nutrient-rich dentinal fluid. The signal to the parotid glands comes from the regulating center of the brain, the hypothalamus. When the tooth fluid flow is reversed due to a signal from the parotid glands (as a result of a poor diet or otherwise), food debris, saliva and other matter are pulled into the tooth through the dentinal tubules. When this happens over time, the pulp becomes inflamed and tooth decay spreads to the enamel. Dr. Steinman identified the loss of certain key minerals in this process of tooth decay. These are magnesium, copper, iron and manganese, all of which are active in cellular metabolism and necessary for the energy-production that allows the cleansing flow of the fluid through dentin tubules. An interesting note is that phytic acid, an anti-nutrient in grains, nuts, seeds and beans, has the potential to block the absorption of each one of these vital tooth building minerals.

Tooth decay therefore needs to be reclassified to accurately describe what it is. The traditional definition of decay as an infectious bacterially-caused disease is false. Tooth decay really is:

Odontoporosis - a decrease in tooth density causing tooth weakness, and Odontoclasia - the absorption and destruction of tooth enamel, dentin and tissue.

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